Stranger Than Fiction Stories

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

The Great Death Pit at the Ancient City of Ur | M.P. Pellicer

Dating back about 4,600 years, the Great Death Pit at the ancient city of Ur, in modern-day Iraq, contains the remains of 68 women and six men, many of which appear to have been sacrificed.

Ancient Chinese Cemetery Contains Remains of Human Sacrificial Victims

In northwest China in tombs near Mogou village, archaeologists have found hundreds of graves that contain the remains of victims of human sacrifice. This cemetery dates back more than 4,000 years.

The excavation of the tombs took place between 2009 to 2011. The majority of them are believed to belong to the Qijia culture. Not only were there individual burials, but in some cases entire families were interred with their heads facing northwest.

Adjacent to the remains were small rooms containing pottery, as well as necklaces, bronze sabers, maces, axes daggers and knives.

The Truth about Demonic Possession and Exorcisms | M.P. Pellicer

The fear that a person can be taken over and possessed by a demon is a widely held religious belief around the world. These religions also offer different forms of exorcisms.

WWI Submarine Found with Dead Sailors Still Aboard | M.P. Pellicer

Off the coast of Belgium a WWI German submarine was found basically intact and with the bodies of 23 sailors inside.

Satan and the Sicilian Nun | M.P. Pellicer

In 1676, a Sicilian nun claimed she was battling Satan, and in the process produced letters that were not deciphered until 300 years later.

The Grave of the Viking Warrior Woman | M.P. Pellicer

Already in the early middle ages, there were narratives about fierce female Vikings fighting alongside men. Although, continuously reoccurring in art as well as in poetry, the women warriors have generally been dismissed as mythological phenomena.

Mystery of the Middle Ages: The Book of Soyga | M.P. Pellicer

During a time when secular texts were frowned upon by the Church, the mysterious Book of Soyga produced during the Middle Ages has yet to be fully understood. It contains passages on magic and the paranormal that scholars until this day have been unable to translate.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Eerie Events at Disney | M.P. Pellicer

Everyone is familiar with hitchhiking ghosts at Disney's Haunted Mansion. There are many urban myths about horrible deaths at this theme park, and in truth there have been employees and visitors who really have at died at the park. It's these events that have caused stories of "real ghosts" at Disney to circulate over the years. Some of them have little or no truth to them, but there is a handful which most definitely will have you watching over your shoulder the next time you visit Mickey.

The French Aristocrat Murder Mystery | M.P. Pellicer

In 2011 a handsome, aristocratic Frenchman may have shot and killed his wife, their four children, and two dogs, burying them all in the garden of their home in Nantes, France. His terrified former mistress went into hiding, fearing for her life.

In 2011, the entire de Ligonnes family, except for the father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, were murdered in their sleep. Even the two family dogs were killed with what was believed to be a silenced .22 rifle.

Born Under Crossed Stars | M.P. Pellicer

What would be the odds that could lose not one, but two of your children to murder? For a family in Kansas the odds were not high enough as two sisters both died at the hands of merciless killers almost twenty years apart.

Jack the Ripper's Dear Diary | M.P. Pellicer

The identity of Jack The Ripper may have finally been confirmed, new evidence suggests.
Researchers now say that they have proven the authenticity of a much-disputed Victorian diary supposedly written by the notorious murderer.

The Unsolved Mystery of the Cave Explorers | M.P. Pellicer

Over fifty years ago three Missouri boys stepped from their homes and into oblivion. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved, and many wonder if some nearby caves they were exploring turned out to be their tomb.

On May 10, 1967, three boys who ventured into caves near their home were never seen again. They routinely explored caves in Hannibal’s Southside neighborhood. Primed by Twain's stories that were set in Hannibal they sought adventures in these dark places, but on this day they never returned home, and suppertime came and went and their places at the table remained empty.

Deep, Dark & Disturbed Forests | M.P. Pellicer

These are all places that have terrifying histories, and visitors sometimes hear high-pitched screams from those that are no longer alive, and have not found peace in the afterlife.
Would you be one of those that would visit these dense, dark forests and confront the feelings of dread? You could chalk it up to your imagination or admit that there is someone, or something looking at you intently from the shadows.

Egyptian Mummy had a Tattoo of Archangel Michael | M.P. Pellicer

About 1,300 years ago a woman who lived in Egypt and was buried on the bank of the Nile River sought the protection of Saint Michael the Archangel. It was not enough to wear a talisman, instead she tattooed his name on her skin in order to invoke this mighty, angelic warrior.

The Seven Sanctuaries of the Sword of St. Michael

Like something out of the DaVinci Code, there are seven ancient monasteries known as the Sacred Line of Saint Michael the Archangel who stretch between Ireland and Israel and which are perfectly aligned.

Unholy Haunting on East Drive | M.P. Pellicer

There is a house in Yorkshire, England that for over 50 years has been the site of one of the most violent haunting in Europe. Many believe that its location which was but a stone's throw from where the town gallows once stood, is the source for the dark phantom that terrorized a family and refuses to be exorcised.

Do You Need to Get Your House Blessed? | M.P. Pellicer

You've moved into a new home, and amid all the excitement and exhaustion of settling into a new space you notice some really strange disturbances that make you uncomfortable. A mental movie plays out in your head of all the Hollywood horror flicks that start out just like this. So what's your next move?

The Man With No Tongue | M.P. Pellicer

In 1991, near the village of Stanwick in England, an excavation unearthed burials dating back to the Roman occupation of Britain approximately 1,500 years ago.

One of the most mysterious finds the archaeologists made was a man whose tongue was cut out and a flat rock was placed inside his mouth. The reason for the mutilation is open to interpretation.

He died around 500 A.D., but it was not until 2017, that an in-depth study of the bones was made.

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Digging Up the Dead | M.P. Pellicer

There was once a time that murderers, rapists and common criminals would be buried at crossroads, or their bodies would be pitched in a ditch. Anywhere except the regular cemeteries where everyone else was interred.
As the years went by things have changed, but not for everyone and not everywhere. There is a 1997 federal law which bans burying convicted criminals at veterans' cemeteries. So what happens when one slips through and ends up getting buried in a graveyard among other veterans? They get dug up and turned over to family, if there's one, other wise it's a pauper's grave.

Phantom of the Queen's Assassin | M.P. Pellicer

The story of Jean l’Ecorcheur which translates to John the Flayer or John the Skinner has its origins from the intrigue of the 14th century, French court.
It was said that he was an assassin who acted at the behest of Catherine de Medici, whose own family of origin was notorious for dark political machinations, when she was the Queen of France. Not surprisingly John the Scourge as he was also known came to a violent end, but not before promising to return and carry out his deathly curse.

The Unquiet Dead are Everywhere | M.P. Pellicer

One of the first books I read which gave me a new perspective on the spirit world is Carl Wickland’s Thirty Years Among the Dead. which he wrote in 1924. Initially it was a little overwhelming to realize how enmeshed living humans as incarnated beings are with discarnates. I spent a couple of days mulling it over, and then plunged into Dr. Wickland’s book, discarding my disbelief, and truth be told, my fear over what he was describing.

The Mystery of the Paris Supermarket | M.P. Pellicer

Straight out of one of the climatic scenes in the movie Poltergeist, in 2015, underneath the basement of a Paris supermarket, over two hundred skeletal remains which were believed to have been transferred during the 18th century to the Paris Catacombs were in their original resting place.
The initial assessment of the archaeologists is that these were plague victims that died during several times the Black Death came to Paris, however it was during the French Revolution that the bodies should have been moved, and it appears that those who were alive thought it was expedient to just leave them where they were.

In the Shadow of Notre-Dame | M.P. Pellicer

Most people are familiar with Victor Hugo's masterpiece The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Various versions have been made, one of the most famous is the 1939 movie in which Charles Laughton plays Quasimodo. Even Disney produced a cartoon, sanitized for young viewers.
Contrary to the stories appearing on film, in Hugo's novel Quasimodo is a gypsy changeling who is exorcised and then left as a deformed foundling at Notre-Dame. The gypsy Esmeralda is ultimately executed by hanging at Montfaucon, Paris' most famous gibbet which was usually covered in carrion crows who pecked at the various corpses left there to rot.
In 1999, the discovery of a diary in Cornwall appears to reveal the real-life inspiration behind the character of Quasimodo the deaf bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his tragic, unrequited love for the gypsy girl Esmeralda.

The Ghost with the Jingling Keys | M.P. Pellicer

Deep in the night of March, 1911 a fire started on the third floor of the Assembly Library in Albany, before long it had reached the fourth and fifth floor. The only person who stood between the destruction of the entire library was 77-year-old Samuel Abbott, a civil war hero who was the night watchman.
He was the only one to die in a fire, that was rumored to have been started by the curse a disgruntled mason left behind when he carved a small, demonic looking face into the wall near the Great Western Staircase

Charlie No Face: The Story of Ray Robinson | M.P. Pellicer

Much is known about the Pennsylvania urban legend known as the Green Man, but much less is known about the real person who was nicknamed Charlie No Face by the locals where he lived.